Off the Record: The California Dream

Come to California
There are jobs of plenty
And land is cheap.
Every working man can have his own house and inside every house a happy all-American family.
You can have all this and who knows…you may even be discovered…become a movie star or at least see one.
Life is good in California...It is paradise on earth…that is what they tell you, anyway. Because they are selling and image…they’re selling it through movies, radio and television.

You think California was the Garden of Eden, but the underbelly always has had its serpent, with felony crime, corruption, prostitution and drugs.

Just as the clean fresh face Mid-Western girl’s who got of the bus in plenty, with star’s glittering in their eye’s with the hope of becoming that next big movie star and as far as she ever got on a Hollywood lot of fame and fortune; is some director’s office sofa or ending up along prostitution row, only to die from a drug over-dose, other unmentionables; to ending up on some vacant lot dead, all cut up like Elizabeth Short (The Black Dahlia) and this was her only walk to fame’s headlines of the butchering, with no solid lead of the killer.

A mug shot of Elizabeth Short (The Black Dahlia) by Santa Barbara police, after her arrest for underage drinking, on 23 September 1943; prior to her murder.

Or those fresh faced young men stepping of the bus from who knows where, with the same star twinkles in their eyes and end up a slap boy for some up and coming politician or lawyer; slapped and tickled homosexual play toy. To later, be tossed away on some trumped-up charge like a ‘kiddy rapper beef;’ heading for (San) Quentin or the “Q;” with yet, just the possibility of just getting their throat sliced from ear to ear.

But less we forget, it was all done with champagne luxury style…which in reality until the economic bust, California became one of the most expensive states to live in; other then New York City….so let’s keep this on the GT and very Hush-Hush with the same old tabloid rag.

Places called “Hoovervilles,” named after former US President Herbert Hoover sprang up during the Great Depression as people lost their jobs and homes; besides the shanty towns, there where an overwhelming amount of what was called “transit camp’s,” which many consisted of nothing more then tent cities. In 2009, American’s are living in what is now being termed as “Obamavilles;” after current US President Barack Obama.

Obamaville: The tents and other makeshift homes have sprung up in the shadow of Sacramento's skyscrapers

Today, tents are once again springing up in the city of Sacramento. But this time it is for people with no hope and no prospects.

Obamaville: The tent city is already home to dozens of people, many left without jobs because of the credit crunch

Those who have lost their jobs and homes and have nowhere else to go are constructing makeshift shelters on the site, which covers several acres.

As many as 50 people a week are turning up and the authorities estimate that the tent city is now home to more than 1,200 people.

In a state more known for its fantastic wealth and the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, the images have shocked many Americans.

Conditions are primitive, with no water supply or proper sanitation.

Many residents have to walk up to three miles to buy bottled water from petrol stations or convenience stores.

Obamaville: Ben Cardwell, carries supplies to his tent at a homeless settlement

Obamaville: Tammy Day, a homeless woman, cooks potatoes on a campfire at the site

At other times, charity workers arrive to hand out free food and other supplies.

Joan Burke, who campaigns on behalf of the homeless, said the images of Americans living in tents would shock many.

'It should be an eye- opener for everybody,' she said. 'But we shouldn't just be shocked, we should take action to change things, because it's unacceptable.

'It is unacceptable that in this day and age we have gone back to a situation like we had during the Great Depression.'

Obamaville: Keith and Tammy Day cook dinner

Authorities in Sacramento, where Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who's family in Austria where of the Nazi Party at Adolph Hitler’s height of in fame; at his office, admit the sight of families living in such poverty is not pretty.

The city's mayor Kevin Johnson said: 'I can't say tent cities are the answer to the homeless population in Sacramento, but I think it's one of the many things that should be considered and looked at.'

Foreclosure rates last year rocketed by 327 per cent, with up to 500 people a day losing their home.

Coupled with massive job cuts that have seen one in ten workers laid off, many people who once enjoyed a middle class existence are now forced into third world conditions.

Former car salesman Corvin and his wife Tena are among the newest residents of the tent city.

Obamaville: Tent city residents queue up to receive supplies handed out by a local charity

The couple, who are in their fifties, lost their home and jobs around the same time.

With homeless shelters full in Sacramento, they had little choice but to use what savings they had left to buy a tent.

The couple admit they have yet to tell their grown-up children about their hand-to-mouth existence.

Tena said: 'I have a 35-year-old son, and he doesn't know. I call him, about once a month and on holidays, to let him know that I'm well and healthy.

Many of those who have found themselves homeless worked in the building trade.

But with no new home builds and as many as 80,000 people losing their job every month, there is little chance of employment.

'He would love me anyway, but I don't want to worry him.'

US President Barack Obama jaunts jubilantly on stage as he arrives to speak about education at the 19th Annual Legislative Conference of the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Washington, 10 March 2009. The song under the photograph above was called. “Where in the Money,” which came out in 1933 as a propaganda tune in retrospect as a mockery of how dire the condition’s actually where during the Great Depression. The song was first featured in the film called; “The Gold Digger’s of 1933” and was presented by a chorus line of scanty dressed women.

As these tent cities will continue to grow in the weeks, months and years ahead with no prosperity in sight. US President Barack Obama’s previous stimulus package fund’s finding its way out of the country for such thing’s as there terrorism genocide increase and troop build-up in Afghanistan or to fund various military contracts for their global initiatives on they’re domination projects for example or for such pet projects as $1.8 million for swine odor and manure management research in Iowa, $2 million to promote astronomy in Hawaii and $381,000 for music programs at New York City’s Lincoln Center.

But yet, the American people have to stand and wait and wonder what sorrows will still becoming there way, as the poverty problem continues to balloon somewhere out past the stratosphere.

Update:

13 March 2009

As to the Obamaville’s in Sacramento which are seen in the above photograph's, it has been reported while these camps are acquiring 50 to 100 people a day with no other place to live or no other foreseeable place to go; that US President Barack Obama’s solution for these particular camps was to order the city of Sacramento to evict all these tent resident’s from their present location.

As to the present living conditions which are deployable and unsafe health hazard with no sanitation or water for instance and having to in most instances to cook over dug holes made into a type of grill to cook what ever a person can"hope to find," instead of Obama helping these American’s; he has found a way to increase their misery.

These camps are also being considered worse, than any fourth world country.

Nevertheless, as to the US commenting of being a safe investment in the world, is nothing but arrogance; as the country plummet’s further into despair.